Old Post Office, 291 Durand St. (1884)

This building was known as “Station Terrace” when it was first erected on campus, and housed researchers from the M.A.C. Experiment Station. From 1912 to 1923, it also housed the East Lansing Post Office. This was a role that had been served by a series of smaller buildings before it, including a “Post Office and Trolley Station” of 1902 which once stood nearby (on campus).

Streetcar waiting room (l) and Station Terrace (r), 1901. The following year, the waiting room was replaced by a larger “Post Office & Trolley Station.” The Post Office moved into an addition to Station Terrace in 1912. Photo Credit: M.S.U. Archives.

Photographs taken of the Old Post Office on campus show a much different building from the one at 291 Durand; in the process of moving the house (likely around 1923 or 1924) the “‘excess lumber’ was used in building the house next door.”[Kestenbaum, p. 139] In addition, the roof has been altered from a hipped design to a gabled one. Aside from the original building materials, little remains of the form of the Old Post Office.